January 7, 2013 4:21 pm

Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll confirmed that the Philadelphia Eagles asked Seattle for permission to interview defensive coordinator Gus Bradley for the team’s vacant head coaching job, and the Chicago Bears have asked for permission to interview offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell for that team’s vacant head coaching job.

But Carroll said he does not expect that to be a distraction this week. If the interviews do take place this week, neither coach will travel for the interview.

“Both of those guys have been contacted,” Carroll said. “And it’s a real positive for the program when people want to talk to your guys. I’ve always thought that that’s a real cool thing.

“There’s a time and a place. And both of our guys are very aware of what they’re doing, and what we’re in for here. And neither one of them is going to let this distract them or get in the way. There’s very limited opportunity for any of that. They’re not going to travel and go places – run around and all of that. So in all due respect for what we’re after right now, it’s low on their list. Both these guys feel exactly the same way about it.”

Carroll also made it official this afternoon, announcing that that defensive end Chris Clemons suffered a torn ACL and torn meniscus in his left knee that will require surgery.

“It’s a big loss for us in a lot of ways,” Carroll said. “Chris has been a great football player. He’s just been a symbol of consistency for the years we’ve had him. But he’s been a great leader for us, too. And a tough dude.”

Carroll said that rookie Bruce Irvin will step in and fill Clemons spot in the starting lineup. The Seahawks also will look to Greg Scruggs and outside linebacker Mike Morgan to help provide some pass rush off the edge.

“This is Bruce’s opportunity,” Carroll said. “It’s what we drafted him to play. And we’ll see how he does. We expect him to do really well as he steps up.”

Carroll said general manager John Schneider is looking for available free agents who could play the Leo position.

Carroll was asked if he felt the loose sod at FedEx Field played a role in Clemons’ injury.

“I don’t know that,” Carroll said. “As he planted, there was a push on him by the offensive lineman that kind of hit simultaneous as his foot planted, and he got caught.

“I don’t know that. The field was not a great turf to play on. There was a lot of loose footing out there.”

Carroll said the team talked about filing a complaint with the NFL about the playing surface at FedEx Field, but as of right now the team has not followed through with any type of formal, written complaint.

Carroll said that kicker Steven Hauschka has a strained lower calf.

“He feels better today than he did yesterday,” Carroll. “He really did a great job of kicking through it, and making the plays we needed him to make.”

Carroll said he’ll have some kickers come into the facility tomorrow in case Hauschka can’t play on Sunday.

Carroll also addressed J.R. Sweezy and John Moffitt splitting time at right guard again.

“They both played well,” he said. “They did a good job. Both those guys were solid in the game. They have a little different style about them, and they both came through all right. They didn’t have a lot of mistakes or things like that.”

Carroll said the two will continue to split time with the first unit.

“We just want to get good solid play out it,” said Carroll, when asked if he would like one of the two players to take hold of the position. “I think it was nice in this game to not have J.R. under the gun, where he had to play every snap of the game. We could rest him a little bit and keep him fresh, and just keep his mind clear, too.

“There was a lot to undertake for a young guy at that spot, and these guys were coming after us and doing all kinds of things. I think Tom (Cable) did a great job of mixing that for those guys.”

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Gregg Bell joined The News Tribune in July 2014. Bell had been the director of writing for the University of Washington's athletic department for four years. He was the senior national sports writer in Seattle for The Associated Press from 2005-10, covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season and beyond. He's also been The Sacramento Bee's beat writer on the Oakland Athletics and Raiders. The native of Steubenville, Ohio, is a 1993 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and a 2000 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.

I would hate to lose Bradley, if it was early in the year up tp game 8 I would have said adios, now I would like to keep him also Like to keep this Staff intact atleast til we are a bonifde multiple SB winner!!!

I’m have always been bittersweet about Gus.I believe he is a great coach/teacher. Not so much a great D coordinator.Sometimes he gets too stuck in playing zone coverage, which this team is not very good at.I seen Pete snatch his shirt early in the game like he meant business! Which I felt if he didn’t we would have kept seeing more or the same.Also this guy sucks at dialing up blitzes.I know they got to Cousins once, but for majority of the season,a bundle of those blitzes were getting picked up entirely too easy.If he stays, fine.If he leaves, good riddance!

Like PC said, it’s a tremendous compliment when other teams want your coaches. I was hoping he’d be around long enough to eventually succeed PC like in 5-10 years, but that never happens. It’s a total pipe dream, I know, but…

Gus Bradley should make a terrific HC. Hate to see him go, but it’s every coaches dream.

We better hope John Schneider never leaves…he’s really the guy responsible for building this team (along with PC).

I think Pete Carroll considers it a great compliment and part of his career goals to help his guys advance their careers. I would hate hate hate to lose Bradley, but I think Carroll would cheer him on if he got an HC job. Losing Bevell could probably be overcome a little more easily. (I would also hate to lose Tom Cable, not that he’s been mentioned yet). I think Cable and Bradley are some of the best assistants in the league.

But for now the only important thing is that they stick to their priorities right now and get us through the post-season with Wins!

Thinking about the matchup next week vs Atlanta. These two teams are mirror images of each other. Seahawks win with a zone rushing attack, mobile QB, and intimidating D, while Falcons win with pocket QB and down-field attack.

Can we generate enough pressure without Chris Clemons to disrupt Matt Ryan? Great DB coverage will help. Shutting down the Falcon’s rush attack should be easy but won’t matter much since Atlanta wins without bothering to run the ball much.

Not that I love stats, but I was checking out Football Outsiders and there are some interesting stats to compare in this matchup:

Atlanta’s O line is one of the best in the league in pass protection (#8 in NFL, allowed only 28 sacks) [DVOA - Football Outsiders]. It will be hard for us to get to Matt Ryan. Meanwhile Atlanta is a poor rushing team (O line run ranking #24 in NFL).

Seahawks offense is the opposite: our O line ranked #3 in NFL in run blocking, and #20 in NFL in pass pro, with a our low sacks allowed (33) owing largely to Wilson’s mobility. Atlanta’s D is #21 against the rush.

Falcons offense is considered very dangerous, but comparing offensive efficiency of these two teams is instructive. Seattle’s offense is much more efficient than Atlanta’s, on both rush offense and – surprisingly – pass offense also.
Seattle #1 rushing DVOA, #4 passing DVOA
Atlanta #29 rushing DVOA, #10 passing DVOA

I expect Seahawks will try to win by running the ball, stuffing Atlanta’s rush, and making them one-dimensional. Atlanta will try to exploit our weakness in the middle of our defense with matchup problems with multiple WRs and TE Gonzales.

Seattle has always been an attractive situation for any GM because the Seahawks have an owner who will both spend money *and* doesn’t interfere with daily decisions. Seattle at a given time might have a better or weaker personnel base which would be less attractive, but the foundation and patience is there for someone to rebuild it. That’s why I think the job is a good one for a GM. Anyone in it for the long haul will find the situation an excellent one. I’m just thrilled Paul Allen finally found the right people.

Seattle is a good draw too. Many pro athletes have retired there. It’s known as a great place to live especially if you have the money to vacation to the sunshine in the winter. Maybe it won’t attract people from elsewhere but once you’re there awhile it feels like a good place to stay.

When we drafted Wright I remember reading all about him and thinking he could/would end up as a Leo. However, since he’s been here he’s obviously been a SAM and I guess I don’t see that changing too much (although it’s possible he could come after the QB in moderation).

Zach Miller is due $9.8m next year with $4m of that guaranteed. A few more plays like yesterday and he probably will see that entire thing in 2013.

But in case you guys are wondering how they pay the minimum wage players in 2014 – Miller, Rice and Clemons are 3 players that are due to earn around $22m in 2014. I don’t expect any of these 3 to see anywhere near that amount.

Duke talked about the 4-3/3-4 thing yesterday (over/under) and I expect to see more of Big Red as a run stuffer (on either side; even in more pass rush situations) with LBs coming, too (which is fine if we’re running a “three” man line). We’ve lost Clem and Jones who are our best inside/outside rushers… Mr. Happy is going to get creative to a degree, IMO. I don’t expect Hill to become a guy who will put his hand in the “dirt” and rush the passer, but he was pretty damn good at blitzing his rookie year (and in moderation since – never understood why he doesn’t come more when he’s not great in coverage either?). Wright can come in moderation too. Things will get more creative, again, in my uneducated opinion. I have zero faith that the DEs we have can get after it and be the main pass rushers we need (since we know our DTs usually don’t get much pressure – minus Branch this past week). Our DEs weren’t good enough to apply consistent pressure with our best one in Clem when healthy, so I’m not sure why they’d be even better now (which nobody has insinuated… but what needs to happen to keep advancing). I do have faith Irvin can make more happen at Leo though (not more than Clem, on average, but more that what we’ve seen of him up to this point… and I’m not complaining about Irvin up to this point one bit). I can’t wait to see what happens on Sunday! I have a good feeling! I was trolling a Falcan’ts blog earlier today and there were some fans talking about things like “great, we play another hot team at the wrong time” and “why do we have to play teams like this” bla, bla, bla. They had some smart fans too, but some of the loser mindset mentality is pretty funny. We all complain about some of us (of which I’m included sometimes) but all teams have all kinds of different fans. If you would have told me at the start of the season that into the second weekend of post-season that we’d only be missing two starters and they weren’t Lynch, Rice, Okung, Unger, Mebane, ET, or Sherman… I’d have said that would be great. It sucks having lost Clem and Jones, but we’re in much better shape than we’re used to being in…

pabuwal, Miller’s cap number drops back down to 5.8 million in 2014, so it definitely will go down even if he doesn’t restructure. I can’t imagine him not being here in 2013 unless they use a 1st rounder on TE.

EWalters – I didn’t mean that I think we are fine at DE without Clem, or anything like that. Clemons is a huge loss, I think, and I’ve written that in previous posts. But I think the idea of bringing in any new players at this point won’t make sense from the coaches perspective. I think they’ll go with the players they’ve already trained in their scheme for the past five months. Irvin steps up to play Leo. Scruggs plays more, Red switches sides as needed, and maybe Branch moves over on rushing downs. I think they’ll do okay. LIke BobbyK said, we are in better shape than most teams are at this time of the year.

I’m trying to avoid the mindset that some SF fans got when Justin Smith was out. That the team and D couldn’t function without him. That’s why I like the next man up philosophy. There may always be a drop-off when a player goes down, but it’s as good an opportunity as someone lower on the depth chart can get.

I don’t think that Pepsi Max ROY bs is the official OROY award. I hope not at least. Anyone with even an elementary knowledge of statistics knows that an internet poll is worth less than a warm bucket of piss.

The Pepsi Max rookie of the year…? That has nothing to do with the *actual* rookie of the year voting by the sports writers of America, which ended last week. This is a fun, fan driven popularity contest, not unlike the pro bowl voting.

I don’t think we will see too many “exotic” or “creative” rush packages from Bradley or Carroll, at least in the form of something that sends more than 4 or 5 rushers after the passer.

My contention is that the Seattle defense is not predicated on a strong pass rush (if it were, it wouldn’t have been close to a top-3 defense this year.) It’s a coverages and scheme defense. It doesn’t demand relentless pressure to be effective.

So, of course it hurts to lose a significant amount of pass rush, but it’s not a blow to their core competency. Just like if Green Bay’s leading running back gets hurt – it certainly is a blow to the Green Bay offense to lose their best runner, but since running isn’t their main competency, it’s not a death-blow to that team.

IMHO, Bradley’s real highlight over the past year and a half have been his gametime defensive play calling, which I do believe he owns 100% (Carroll doesn’t override that.) People may refute that by saying “what about Detroit or Miami?”, but of course Bradley’s not perfect. And due to personnel limitations (which all teams have no matter how good they are) you cannot always call a shutdown play for every offensive situation.

What I think is getting Bradley attention is that he really is helping make the existing personnel look good by putting them in positions and calling plays that maximize what they do best and minimize their flaws. Some people have said the personnel makes Bradley look good – I say that the opposite is also true. Bradley is also helping players look good by putting them in positions that play to their strengths.

And, since Seattle really more along the lines of a bend-but-don’t break defense, if it gives up some yardage or drives, that’s not a sign of failure. A bend-but-don’t break defense is measured by points allowed, and there, there is no question the defense has been tremendously effective and the plays called have worked.

I had my cerebellum removed during my brain surgery, it controls your speech, swallow and balance. I began working at it immediately, other parts of my brain took over and i developed new neuro pathways, i’m still a bad ass but i have a good heart. If he tore something it was probably his labrum? That’s when i began reading on this blog, long before i could talk again. When i spoke the wrong words came out for several months, how frustrating. Now we have a good football team and i couldn’t be happier. Clemmons will have to restructure, Miller is worth his pay because he does a lot of the things we don’t see, he’s very unselfish and can be an excellent reciever or blocker. Just when i think McCoy stepped up helets me down, i’d like to get another TE to pair with Miller instead of replacing him, we stole the best reciever from Oakland. Irvin will turn on the jets, i hope he makes us forget about Clem.

I think Scruggs and Irvin will both do very well. Irvin isnt the same player as Clemons, but Carrol and Bradley know that, and if you remember they drafted Irvin to eventually take over for Clemons. They may go back and forth with the Under/Over, and Im sure they will tweak things somewhat for Irvin. But all is not lost.

McCoy and Morgan are both very fast LB’s, and they could possibly play Leo as well as at Red’s spot on passing downs, so we are okay there. And we have KJ Wright, who while not the fastest guy on the defense, is far from slow; he’s faster than Hill and also is very intelligent and knows the defense inside and out, so we wont have to worry about him being out of position.

I think we’ll see Seattle move guys around and try to confuse Atlanta, and I think we’ll see more stunts, etc. I doubt they get too crazy, as we’ll have 2-3 new people playing, but they cant just go base defense all day long.

Another two-drive meltdown to open the game will bury us. They have to open with a stop, and the O has got to get a TD on one of their first two drives; if that happens, and we go up by 7, this game is likely ours. I have that kind of faith in our team once again. I just dont see how Atlanta can stop Wilsons feet and Lynch; they can take away Tate and Rice, but Miller, McCoy, Baldwin, and the backs catching passes underneath are enough to win.

I wonder if Atlanta will try to stick Julio Jones on Browner or Sherman?! I bet they move their guys around, trying to get Jones on Trufant. Thats what I would do; there’s no way Tru can cover a guy that quick and agile. I want to see Sherman blanket him, and Browner beating hell out of Roddy White!

Browner looked slow and rusty in the last game. He was not able to react and move quick enough to prevent some pass completions. They might have better coverage on White if they use a faster more nimble guy like Lane. Let Browner get back up to speed before he goes against a fast receiver. Browner’s play could be an Achilles heel in this next game as well as Tru. And what’s up with Chancellor just standing in the endzone next to the Falcon player catching the TD pass in the first half and not even attempting to knock the ball down. He just stood there and watched it happen.

STTBM – all good points. I really don’t think Morgan or McCoy will be used at Leo in this game, to beat Atlanta speed is greatly needed in the middle of the field. Trufant will be challenged often at nickel. KJ Wright’s coverage abilities will be challenged by Gonzales. We need speed and quicks in the middle of the field to at least hammer receivers coming across the middle, if no outright defense the passes.

I think Browner and Sherman can limit the downfield WRs, and Atlanta is likely to work their short passing routes hard all game. We will have a hard time stopping them. This is where we need speed. I could see Leroy Hill sitting out this game to let the faster LBs play. They won’t be able to cover Atlanta, but they can hit them and intimidate them.

Stevos–Yeah, Im worried about Tru’s performance. I think Chancellor will be huge. If they go zone with Tru and Kam, Chancellor just HAS to drill the guys going over the middle early and often. My nightmare is Jones in the slot on Tru…they better put Sherman on him regardless of where he goes, even if Sherm is better playing outside.

I agree, we probably wont see those LB’s at leo except if Irvin is gassed or Atlanta starts running the ball on us. I think Scruggs and Irvin are gonna be tired pups after this game. I hope they step up!

One thing no national media types have figured out is that while Red Bryant has played pretty much every game, he’s been playing with a bad foot/leg, and just isnt himself. When the injury happened our run D began to fall apart. When Red’s healthy, our run D is insanely good. Reds still a great player, but hes not able to dominate like he did last year or early this season.

When we get another good DT, Red Healthy, and one of the young DB’s ready to play nickel, this defense will be the best in the NFL. Unfortunately, that may not be until next season..

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